Site for the largest Irish Traveller community in the UK, Dale Farm houses around 100 families and over 1,000 people. Falling within a local greenbelt, many of the buildings on the site were built without planning permission since the initial settlement in the 1980s.

Police began evicting travellers from the farm on 19 October 2011 after the Travellers lost their last-ditch attempt to stave off eviction at the court of appeal.